A pixelated screen several stories high stood on a huge stage in the middle of a dead-end street. The screen curved around and the images projected from them in 3-D. A battle between a jack-in-the-box clown and a sunburst played on the screen as each artist attempted to change the other ones’ image while holding their own. The smash reminded Cinder of Reversi, a board game she played with Dash on lazy weekends when her father grounded her and she couldn’t leave their apartment complex. Only this game had pixels instead.
Vaughn stared at the battle raging above their heads as they waited in the wings. “This is too risky,” he told Cinder.
A smack of hissing erupted as one of the players’ Clout tickers gained momentum, surpassing the other. While the Clout tickers on both sides increased throughout the smash, the artist with the most Clout at the end would claim victory. This was how she would make money, hopefully enough to bail Nasser out of jail.
Cinder nodded, agreeing with Vaughn; she needed to keep a low profile after what had happened with the black chip. She risked exposing herself and her fake identity by battling in the smash, especially since she had never used the technology before and had no artistic chops. But the thought of Dash, and Nahum, and doing nothing to help either of them, strengthened her resolve. “We don’t have a choice.”
Vaughn leaned in, almost whispering through his teeth. “What if the Black Chip Guy is here? He recognized you once and almost caught us.”
She shrugged to hide her anxiety. “My back will be to the audience.” The mysterious man who had hacked Vaughn’s black bead scared her to no end. But she didn’t want to give her fears life by speaking them out loud.
Vaughn’s voice spilled with urgency. “You do understand that this smash is not for amateurs. There’s a slim chance you’ll make enough to post Nasser’s bail, plus—“
Ember huffed, cutting him off. “Oh, let her do it. She’s heard your opinion. She knows the risks. Stop driving your point into the ground.”
Vaughn recoiled, like she had struck him; Ember clamped her hand over her mouth almost immediately. Cinder’s own mouth dropped open at the girl’s venomous tone. Ember never criticized or interrupted Vaughn or Nasser, and she never defended Cinder either.
Taking a deep breath, Ember blew her bangs out of her face and collected herself. In a softer tone, she said, “Nasser won’t survive in jail much longer. He’s pissed off too many people.” She glanced at Cinder from the corner of her eye. “You want to save Dash, don’t you? If you’re going to play hero, now’s the moment.”
The look on the other girl’s face told her that Ember cared more about her mission than she let on. Why though? Did she admire her love, cherish her perseverance? Something she had said or done had touched Ember, even if the other girl wouldn’t admit it.
As Cinder watched the stage, her heart jumped all around in her chest, trying to spring loose. To Ember, she nodded. “I’m ready.”
Ember gave her a small smile, like a thank you without words. “We’ll cheer for you.” Cinder understood her meaning; for the moment, in the absence of Nasser, the girl needed a leader. And she had pledged her momentary allegiance to Cinder.
Vaughn looked like he had something gravely serious on his mind. But then his face went blank of emotion and he gave Cinder a single, solitary nod of approval.
The battle in front of them ended, the jack-in-the-box having won. An announcement rang through the crowd. “The victor, with three hundred seventy-five thousand, four hundred twelve Clout is A9BYRE2BDFHW12!”
The man named Trilogy took the center of the stage, raising his hands in the air to a roaring crowd. Cinder’s body went cold all over as Trilogy shook hands with his opponent, Sun-Times, who looked none too pleased. With a smirk from Trilogy, the two parted to their respective sides.
Sun-Times, the sunburst girl, shoved Cinder’s shoulder as she passed her. She spit onto the concrete, barely missing Ember’s boots. “Good luck,” she told Cinder, in a way that made her think the girl would love to see her destroyed.
“What was that about?” she asked.
Ember pumped her shoulders in the air. “Artists,” she said. “Such drama queens.”
Now was the moment of truth. Cinder blinked several times, collecting herself as she stared out over the daunting crowd. It went on for what seemed like miles. She stepped onto the stage and grabbed a helmet, strapping her head into it. The helmet projected her thoughts on screen so everyone could see her art.
When her opponent, a boy named Kaiser, joined her onstage, the crowd roared with approval. She caught a glimpse of Ember putting her hand to her head, and she knew she was in trouble. She knew going into the smash that the regulators often paired new entrants with experienced ones, to protect earnings and make it nearly impossible for amateurs to break in. But the look on Ember’s face indicated more. Cinder just wasn’t sure what.
She looked over Kaiser a bit closer—he looked a bit familiar, though she was sure she had never seen him before. He grinned at her, grinding his fist into the palm of his other hand menacingly.
Deafening music blasted throughout the streets, indicating that the smash was about to start. The crowd controlled the notes that played, creating a cacophony of harmonies that she would not typically expect to hear layered on top of each other. Cinder and her opponent took their places at opposite ends of the stage, waiting for the signal to begin.
She adjusted her tongue, letting the medallion Nahum gave her slide to the roof of her mouth. Using someone else’s work was strictly forbidden and grounds for disqualification, but Cinder didn’t think Nahum would mind in this case.
She closed her eyes. Within seconds, before she even knew they had started, images appeared on screen. Under a night sky twinkling with bright stars, a girl with a dress made of roses searched for a stick. She ran and hid from a dragon that loomed nearby, threatening to flame her to oblivion with his large nostrils. The dragon roared, blowing fire from its nose, when blue roses sprang from the earth beneath it, wrapping themselves around its stumpy legs like tiny garden snakes. The rose stems grew thicker until thorns poked out, piercing the dragon’s skin. The dragon twisted all around, blowing fire in any direction it could. The girl, her dress having wilted away, ran naked between its legs, avoiding its spiky tail.
A man riding a white horse found the girl and the dragon in a stalemate, it unable to move, her avoiding its flames. The man pulled a rose from his sleeve and grabbed onto the dragon’s tail, which whipped him around wildly. Immediately, blood covered the man’s body—he had gotten caught in one of the dragon’s deadly spikes. He reached his hand out to the girl and she took it, allowing him to swing her up onto the dragon’s back. The tail swung once more, and the man tossed the girl his rose on the upswing, right before his eyes went blank. The girl climbed to the middle of the dragon’s back, almost getting thrown from it. She stabbed the rose into the dragon’s skin.
The rose bloomed, taking roots inside the dragon. The girl jumped away and watched as the dragon stopped struggling, in shock and pain from the injury. The roots sprang quickly from all sides of the dragon, piercing through its skin until the dragon stopped moving. When the roots reached the ground, they dug in, forming a tightly wound stem around the dragon until it disappeared. The rose grew and grew, shooting up several stories high, until the bloom finally disappeared from the screen.
Cinder heard deafening screams at her back and opened her eyes.
Note from the Author: This book is the first in the Socialpunk Trilogy. It's available for free in ebook format via all major retailers, including Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords. The second and third books in the trilogy will not be posted on Wattpad, but you can get information about them via http://monicaleonelle.com/free-novels/
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Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1)
Teen Fiction"This book would be good for those that enjoyed the Hunger Games!” ~ Cover 2 Cover Blog "When I read the first page, I did not anticipate that I would be finishing the book that night, but I did. I had to. I didn’t care that I was up until 3:00AM."...
